Muslim cleric issues ‘fatwa’ against Bengal BJP chief

Kolkata, Dec 12 (IANS) A Muslim cleric on Monday issued a fatwa against West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh over his “derogatory” remarks against state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and demanded he and other RSS members be “thrown out of the country.”

“How can he use such language while speaking about a secular Chief Minister like Banerjee. The entire country respects her and Ghosh has used filthy and abusive expressions like he “could have held her by her hair” and “thrown out”. Ghosh and other RSS followers should be thrown out of the country. They are CIA agents,” Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque Maulana Noor-ur Rahman Barkati said here.

Ghosh had said Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, “has lost her mind” after the demonetisation of high-value currency notes. He threatened that the central government could have held her by the hair and thrown her out when she led a demonstration in Delhi.

Addressing a rally at Jhargram of West Midnapore district on Saturday, Ghosh said: “The Chief Minister of our state is semi-mad. She doesn’t want to remain at home. She wanders on the streets.”

On December 2, at a rally in Uluberia of Howrah district, Ghosh had made belligerent remarks about Banerjee going to Delhi and holding a demonstration at Jantar Mantar against demonetisation.

“Our Chief Minister had gone to Delhi. She has made a lot of song and dance there. Tell me, we have our government there. If we had wanted, couldn’t we have held her by the hair and thrown her out?”

A day later, speaking at another rally in East Midnapore district’s Tamluk, Ghosh said: “She has lost her mind. What will happen if she jumps out of the 14th floor (of Nabanna, which houses Banerjee’s office)?”